Science & Technology
There were times reading the University of Western Ontario's study, published this January in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, when I couldn't tell if it's all a big scary attempt to terrify us or if it's an earnest, scientific and intellectual inquiry into what happens to our memories when we die. The findings - which say our brains are working as much as 10 minutes after we pass - are mind blowing enough to argue that it's both.
As you know, the topic of what happens at the end has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. Authors have written books about it. Hollywood has made movies. The 2014 film Heaven Is For Real, about a 4-year old boy who told his parents he visited heaven while having surgery, was a huge box office success.
But even before that, we've all heard stories of how people who have died and come back to life say they saw light at the end of a tunnel. Or that they floated above their bodies, watching doctors desperately work to bring them back to life. I know one such person.
Back when I was in my late twenties, one of my coworkers, after being in a car accident years before, said he found himself floating near the operating room ceiling. Down below the doctors were working on his body. He didn't know that he'd hit black ice, or that his car had spun out of control and slammed into a utility pole. All he knew was that people wearing surgical masks were putting electric paddles on his chest, and that a voice was calling his name. He said the voice sounded faint, as if coming to him from an enormous distance. He knew the voice, as I remember, and yet he did not recognize it. Then the doctors gave him a shock and he was magically back in his body again. He awoke finding himself in a hospital bed.
When I first heard this story, I paid barely any attention. Though I pretended to be interested, my coworker's words seemed to be spoken by someone who was, how do I say it, a bit strange, and so I ignored them. I've never believed in the tunnel-and-bright-light thing, and my coworker and I were not close enough to delve into his beliefs. But I clearly recall hearing him say, "I knew I was dead," which to me was an incredibly absurd statement to anyone of intelligence. The idea that someone could know that they are dead after their heart stops beating was ridiculous - hilarious, even. To me, the thought of knowing that I am dead is as terrifying as the thought of being buried alive. It has that "My God, I'm under six feet of dirt" feel to it.
But however strange it may sound, recent scientific evidence has made us rethink when death happens, with evidence the brain keeps working after the hearts stops beating.
In the study cited above, Canadian doctors at the University of Western Ontario who were monitoring four terminal patients in intensive care seemingly found that brain activity can carry on long after life support systems are turned off, with death confirmed by unreactive pupils and the absence of a heartbeat, among other means.
The team found that for reasons not completely understood, after the four patients died, the brain continued working in one patient. In fact, for 10 minutes and 38 seconds this dead person's brain exhibited the same waves - known as delta waves - living people experience during dreams and deep sleep.
I remember from the 1990 film Flatliners (there's a 2017 follow-up) that the experience of death can be very different for different people. It goes without saying that this was not a serious movie, but it did take its material seriously, and just as it had with Kiefer Sutherland and Julia Roberts, the Western Ontario team found that death is a unique experience.
Living in the real world not a movie, the team found that across the four patients, the electrical activity in their brains as measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG) test displayed few similarities both before and after they were declared clinically dead.
"There was a significant difference in EEG amplitude between the 30-minute period before and the 5-minute period following ABP cessation for the group," the team said. (If you're wondering, "ABP" stands for arterial blood pressure).
What this means is that it's not entirely clear at what points certain parts of the body shut down in death. What happens after death remains mysterious to science.
But in hopes of bringing some clarity to the question, other researchers besides those at Western Ontario are looking into what happens when we die.
A study in 2011 by neurologists at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, as an example, discovered a burst of brain activity in rats for about one minute after they were decapitated. This seems to confirm that the brain and heart have different moments of death, and it might be the reason a revolutionary picked up Marie Antoinette's head and waved it to the crowd, believing that she was still conscious, even if for just a minute, after being beheaded.
A more recent study, published this year in the journal Royal Society Open Biology, also found that some cells continue to function in the days after we die. But get this: stem cells, it turns out, even attempt to repair themselves, according to the international team of researchers.
I think it's important to point out that the scientists conducting these studies are being very cautious about the implications of their research. For instance, the Western Ontario sample size was small, with only one patient with brain activity after death and three without. Considering the sample size of one, the study's findings could be the result of some type of error at the time of the EEG recording, the authors reported.
And while the team responsible for the study published in Open Biology concluded that being clinically dead (no pulse or heartbeat) does not mean all of the cells of your body - including your brain - are dead, they also concluded that additional study is necessary, as is usually the case with scientific research.
That being said, as jarring as it is, this type of research is a game-changing area of science. As I see it, it's clear that very strange things can happen at the moment of death - and afterwards. With cells still functioning, the one thing science now knows for certain is that death is a process. Which means pinpointing the exact moment we die can be difficult.
Just think about that - not knowing exactly when we pass has enormous moral implications, particularly for things such as organ donation. Would you want to donate your vital organs if you knew your brain was still working?
I would, I confess, be uneasy with it. And almost everyone I talk with has the same reaction.
At the end of the day, most people think of death as a conclusive event. So it's difficult to fathom the possibility of life-like activities occurring in the bodies of people who have died. It leaves us with the chilling possibility that in the several minutes following death, as much as 10 minutes or more, our brains know what is going on. Reading about this in a scholarly article didn't just educate me - it made my jaw drop.
But before you run to your local motor vehicle department and cancel your organ donation registration, keep in mind that although science knows more today about what happens when we die than it did before, this newly acquired knowledge hasn't even scratched the surface.
The Western Ontario study seems to suggest the possibility your brain knows you're dead, at least in some cases. As terrifying as that sounds, who knows what tomorrow may bring. According to a 2005 study published in PLOS, nearly two-thirds of all published research cannot be confirmed by subsequent studies. Will that help you sleep at night?
Reader Comments
Men ghost me all the time!!
.... well... they aint men... all faggots. Wtf
We give them an order and they cannot but obey. Make sure to give a clear and precise order....
Mine was: thank you for trying to wake my husband the fuck up now leave our home and remain 1000 miles away at all times from me and mine. Voilà!
I think it was more my soul that played to bring me soothing cause i heard it and was in awe at the harmony during my sleep.... or was it a lovely ghost (?)
Sounds like psychokinesis, not a poltergeist. Like you said, it sometimes happens when certain individuals are upset, or have overwhelming stress in their lives. The objects start moving, and everyone thinks its a haunting.
I just researched... ha! found a new piece to who i am! I m thrilled!!!!
Hmmm just last night again my car wouldnt start. When my energyfield gets so super-charged by insights or inspiration/chanelling while exchanging with people... good people ... and the energies flow harmoniously between us without interferances... electronics/electricity somehow get short-circuited. I ve had that quite often... even at work... where my bosses would tell me to stay away from photocopiers for instance.
I ve understood what s up so people look wierd as i actually have to remove myself from the car or space.... and slowly consciously bring my energies back into my body... and feet and breathe deep. When i feel 'back in me bones'... i get back into my car and.... ignite .. vroumvroum lift off hahaha... or to the fax or photocopier (which thank heavens i havent had to in a quarter century - no more boss :P)
Ok S... is that psychokinesis at work too?
so, it happens even when you're not upset? Then maybe you're more like Uri Geller?
...Have you ever tried bending spoons with your mind?
Now i recall something from the turn of the century (haha makes us seem old ) ... i found a crossing of underground energies where water flowed 'up-stream'. Hmmm in touch with a bud again whom i shared that with.... i m gonna go back there and investigate... something directing me through you in this thread.
I ll keep you posted S.
GGG is Pres of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Cool stuff today wootwoot.
Oh! S, back in Utah, i had to find a number of specific items within a few hours, also a deer to cross my path. It all happened easily, the deer took a whole 11 mins to walk just in front on me, from right to left.
Is this and my electrical challenges all the same stuff do you think? Psychokknesis?
Years back... when i first heard the phrase... Energy Treatments, i stopped breathing for a moment. It was and is sooo powerful to/for me but my face never really squinted paying attention like it is today lol. Really!! Thank YOU!!
We loved!!!! LAUGH-IN!!
what happened?!! 🙈
I verrrry rarely get upset, i usually give verrry fair warning to peeps not to try to get me upset. I think i could launch a cyclone lol without really trying all that hard. I think i m starting to connect the dots. Verrrry IntereSSting (specially for you and RC )
... btw.. i ve been playing with the weather also since being a kiddo... and what i ve remarked is that the intention needs to remain pure (as it being a need being answered, not a show-off wanting thingy... ego drives dont work.)
Would like to think mind over matter, and there is a lot we still don't understand about our existence. I've also in past been known to focus at a red light on the red turning to green, and sometimes it would flicker, then change to my favor.(way sooner than it should have) one night i went thru 5 lights without breaking because i was convinced i could just look at the light right before i got to it, and it would flicker then change.(which they did)
Love that - we are made for magic. Also... break rules, once we ve played by them honourably :)))) total classy S!
Even as a young kid i hated halloween and would only trick or treat if i was costumed
À LA Indian :))))
Rather, they were gasping for a liquid, called H2O and the O2 to be placed into their bloodstream by their gills.
But they are / can be rather tasty lil' critters. (The best fish I've ever tasted was a hogfish/hogshead snapper a friend speared in the Bahamas on a surfing trip. It was like fresh red snapper, with dolphin (fish) mixed with lobster. Beyond beyond! A veritable gustatory delight!)
R.C.
Call me the GestaPoPo, See if I care!
RC
Or are you a random creature such as myself? ...leaves them guessing
Better on the look-out for 'our' Oprah s lightbulb moments (she may just find hers )
* hmmm... the sins of the father/mother will be paid by his sons/daughters for 7 generations (?)
P.S. cool talking Strategery , you have powerful stories to tell)
Thank the carrot, the nut, the trout, the grizzly ... lol ... before sinking your teeth or the knife's teeth in em. No nut nor seed will gasp and the grizzly will play RUG will let you wipe your shoes on it.
Pretty cool Africa! Thanks for making me feel special! ...and it's not even my bday!
This separation from the physical body also occurs when we sleep and our soul and spirit body travel to the spirit world. Every one does this every time we sleep. We have no memory of what transpired in the spirit world because we have shut that down due to our fear.
We could remember if we wanted to. That is why people have reported out of body experiences where the soul and spirit body can observe the physical body as separate to it.
Science does not really provide us with all that much illumination.
It really does not live up to that claim.
But a study of what science is doing to us, might.
'Game-changing.'
Can you keep up with the latest trend?
ned,
out
Gonna go to the place that's the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin' up to the Bacon in the sky
Goin' up to have Bacon and eggs that’s the best
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
Gonna go to the place that's the best
I've had a habit of briefly transitioning to the "other side" since I was 4. The longest lasted almost 4 hours to the minute. I distinctly remember looking at the clock before losing consciousness and again upon awakening. Got up and wrote everything down in the journal. It was the most lucid period I'd ever had--a kind of hyper-consciousness. For the next 2 days I felt like there was this glass wall between where I was and the temporal world. I was experiencing everything physical in a normal way, but I felt like my consciousness was mostly elsewhere.
Most of what I learned I had to "forget", and did so by consent, because I knew if I remembered all that I had seen and learned I could not function in this cockamamie world. I was however, given the privilege of remembering certain key items after they happened, so that later I would know that my chosen life experiences were on course. One of the bizarre things to happen after that event was being able to predict what was going to happen to various strangers I had encountered, as if their personality became an open book and I could "read" the nature of their choices. After a while I decided such premonitions were not useful and just annoying, doing my best to shut them out. The only way to effectively learn in life is to be accountable for one's actions while staring into the Unknown. Like the movie Premonition , knowing things ahead of time just screws things up.
I rarely ever mention these things to anyone for reasons similar to that of the author's attitude. Its no use trying to convince the skeptical and unaccepting. This kind of stuff people just have to go through themselves to understand it.
What you 'suppose' K about knowing things ahead of time screws things up... well, it s explained in the North Direction.
It actually is your own immaturity you came here to ripen.
While you re at it. Ruis' THE Four (+5 newly) Agreements is major vip book to read as well.
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